The Trout Lake Grange is meeting at a new time, now on the fourth Thursday of each month at 7 p.m. at the Grange Hall. Unfortunately, I, your penitent newswriter, dropped the ball on the program that should have been this month, namely the wonderful and fun Valentines event of anonymous stories from local couples about how they met and married, followed by guessing who is who. I'm sorry, and I'll try to do better. The Grange is important to us all, and I wanted to help but ran out of time. However, there will still be a meeting, run by our intrepid Grange officers.

The Grange Hall needs roof repairs. Donations are welcome, can be left in the jar on the table near the door if you are in the building for a meeting, or sent to Betty Schmid.

Our Trout Lake -- Glenwood basketball teams have wrapped up a very successful season. In a double-elimination District 5 tournament, both the girls and boys teams lost their first game to Klickitat, then both won their second game against Klickitat, thus advancing to a final game against Sunnyside Christian. The girls and boys team both lost to Sunnyside Christian in hard fought games. In 2007 the B teams were divided into B-1 and B-2 groups, with the smaller schools in B-1. Even in that group, Trout Lake-Glenwood is among the smaller schools.

Being small might make basketball harder, but it's probably one reason why we just passed the levy with 76.9 percent for. We have an outstanding school that is an important part of our community life. The vote certainly reflects that opinion. Doug Dearden, school superintendent, asks me to say thank you to the voters -- to all of you who turned out, whether for or against, since the turn-out is very important, but especially to those who voted for the levy, for your support.

Speaking of the school, this column failed to note School Board Appreciation Day in January. These folks work hard and give a lot to the school. Thanks to Carl Allaway, Cheryl Mack, Diane Paxson, Jim Wells, and SunDee Yarnell for your time, your contribution, and your caring. I'm thinking that Carl Allaway may be moving toward being the longest-serving school board member ever here in Trout Lake. That kind of experience and history with the school is invaluable and represents a major effort on Carl's part. So a special thanks to Carl for his consistency and faithfulness to serve.

Arts Council fundraiser. The annual fundraiser for the Trout Lake Arts Council, sponsor of the Trout Lake Arts Festival and of art activities at the school, will be held on Sunday, March 18, at the home of Tom and Jo Ellen Osterlind. The event features cheese, wine, a volcano of chocolate, and an opportunity to watch artists Cathleen Rehfeld and Bonnie White at work. There will also be a silent auction including artworks by Mark Hudson, C.J. Rench, David Sherburne, and Jerry Tomasek. Tickets are $20 per person, payable by mail to the Hostetters at 490 Sunnyside Road, Trout Lake.

The Trout Lake Community Wildfire Protection Plan team (Joseph Esteves, Carter Davis, Joe Leslie, Steve Koenig, Jim Wells, and Greg Page) recently submitted a second application for a National Wildfire grant, for roughly $200,000. The team submitted their first grant proposal in February 2006. That proposal was ranked first place in the Oregon and Washington group and is expected to receive funding sometime in 2007, subject to the vagaries of the federal budget. The money will be used for hazardous fuel reduction in shaded fire breaks, mostly along existing roads in forested areas around the perimeter of the Trout Lake area. The new grant, if funded, will provide support for the same activity, in particular to staff and train a fuels reduction team to continue with the fuel reduction work. A report from the Fire Team will be on the next community council meeting agenda, for the meeting of Wednesday, March 7.

The group working on the sub-area plan revision will meet again on Feb. 27. At that time, a preliminary draft of the plan will be available, although there are sections that will not be included in that draft. As we work toward conclusion of the plan, which will be sent to the county for its consideration in adopting a comprehensive land-use plan and adopting zoning ordinances for Trout Lake, public input will be very important. Minutes of past meetings are available on the Trout Lake website.

At the beginning of the planning process, Klickitat County hired Tenneson Engineering of The Dalles to do a "buildable lands inventory." This study estimated present population of the valley and also assessed how many building lots are available under present zoning. The study then calculated the number of residents and residences that would be needed under various assumptions about growth rates. This study makes interesting reading and is pertinent both to the planning process and to those involved in the Horizons program. Go to http://www.klickitatcounty.org/Planning/ and look for the Trout Lake Master Plan Report button.

You all know the big sign along the highway just north of the hardware store? The one that kind of welcomes people to Trout Lake and lets them know who we are and what we believe? Whether or not we agree with it ourselves? Anyway, let's make note that it does not belong to the hardware store. Maybe you wish it did, or maybe you're glad it doesn't, but the fact is that the folks at the hardware store have their own sign which sticks to telling you what's on sale, or about an event in town, or sometimes about somebody's birthday or grandchild. It doesn't tell you about politics, yours, theirs, or anybody else's.

As I write this, we have just had a nice spring day on Saturday and now clouds and spits of rain. We've had inversions, floods, snow, rain, ice, and fog this winter. Are there any surprises left for this winter to spring on us? Or maybe it's just time for spring to spring on us. Get those lawnmowers sharpened while you still have time. Pat Arnold, newswriter.